McNair Scholars represent College of Letters and Sciences

Fall Undergraduate Research Day 2017

Randolph Harvey

McNair Scholar Randolph Harvey spent the last seven months working on his research project, The Examination of Media Biases and the Public’s Perception, with his mentors Dr. Christopher Calvert-Minor (Philosophy) and Charles Weber (Communications). Harvey approached the professors with original methodology and research on the subject. “I came up with the methodology on my own and I sent it to them [and] asked them what do you think, what needs to be done, like what should I approach here? Christopher Calvert-Minor, he added the Philosophical approach,” Harvey said. As a Communications major and future doctoral student, Harvey hopes to create an independently-owned media company and eventually teach at the university level. “I want to actually have like a real news station, news media with professional journalists that are adding their own...it’s not filtered. It’s the actual thing that’s going on. What’s really happening… and people are seeking the truth.” Harvey became interested in the McNair program after seeing his roommate working on a research project about Marmots, a large rodent found in Colorado. “He would be so enthused… and his second year he went to Colorado and I was like… that’s pretty awesome,” Harvey said. After seeing his roommate’s involvement, Harvey then applied for the program, came up with a topic that interested him and went from there. He says what sets the McNair scholars apart is the prestige and the impact on your career. “McNair gives you that platform to get into grad school and pursue your PhD. McNair is a lifelong thing. Once you have ‘McNair Scholar’ on your application or on your resume, that sticks with you,” Harvey said. He plans on finishing up at UWW and continuing on to a PhD program to eventually teach at a university.

Shante Fossie

Junior Shante Fossie hopes to follow in her father’s footsteps counseling Milwaukee’s inner-city community. “It’s amazing to see someone with so much work ethic and helping his community and coming back to his community…he never left it. So that’s really where I want to go,” said Fossie. Her project, African-American Masculinity and Perceived Discrimination focuses on the way African-American men internalize and externalize their emotions in relation to discrimination. Fossie also hopes to look at their coping mechanisms by studying African-American men on a midwestern, four-year campus like Whitewater. “So I can connect being black, but I want to be able to just have an understanding of what African-American males go through, because I can be ignorant to that,” said Fossie. Right now she’s working on a proposal to the International Review Board with her mentor, Robert Greene before she can begin the study. “It’ll be interviews, qualitative research, asking them in-depth questions,” said Fossie. She will also be studying the level of involvement of the men to determine what kind of effect that has on the way they process their emotions. Fossie says her will have a positive impact on her future career. “People that have went through McNair, especially being black, have usually been successful. Have gotten their Master’s, some of them have went to their PhD’s. So I feel like that push and that drive that McNair does,” said Fossie. She recently presented her work at UWW’s Fall Undergraduate Research Day and plans on presenting at symposiums alongside the other McNair Scholars.